Celtic connections

The learned Jim Naughtie introduced an item on the Today programme on Friday, about concerns that mainland dialects of Gaelic were dying out. He relished the opportunity to get his chops round Ballachulish.

The report was by Andreas Wolf, a reporter for BBC Alba, who's originally from West Berlin, who now lives near Oban, and also works as a Gaelic teacher.

The research that triggered the story was by William Lamb, a member of the Faculty of Scottish and Celtic Studies at Edinburgh University. William is from Baltimore, but came to Edinburgh in 1996, and worked for some years in Uist, running the Traditional Music and Scottish Gaelic courses at Lews Castle College Benbecula (UHI).  He lives in Edinburgh with his partner, who's from North Uist. The couple's two daughters speak North Uist Gaelic as their first language. Dr Lamb is also currently editing a scholarly edition of an out-of-print book on puirt-à-beul, or Gaelic 'mouth-music'. He used to describe himself as the owner of Razorfish Recording - "a boutique recording and mixing facility in the Western Isles of Scotland".

The man saying he was the last speaker of a particular mainland Argyll dialect was Brigadier John MacFarlane.  In the past, John, a former Gurkha instructor, has campaigned for Gurkhas to be resettled to Argyll; appeared in programmes on BBC Scotland investigating Gaelic-speaking soldiers' role at Montecassino; he featured in half-hour-conversation on BBC Alba in 2010; he is President of the 1745 Society, interested in all things Jacobite and Bonnie Prince Charlie; he can recite the Brosnachadh, the Gaelic incitement to battle, written for The Battle of Harlaw in 1411.   John says his dialect is peculiar to the area round Taynuilt; he was, however, brought up on Mull.

The singer saying he has learned one of the dying mainland dialects is Griogair Labhruidh - anglicised as Grigar Lowry. Now 24, he's written a treatise on the Gaelic dialect of the Ballachulish area for the National University of Ireland, Galway.